All coaches who fail to retire on time will go over the hill and at least begin the process of potentially ruining what they accomplished. Frank Beamer just retired about 3 years too late. Bobby Bowden retired 4 or 5 years too late. Ditto Joe Paterno, who could be forced to do the right thing for the program only after the worst pedophile scandal in sports history.
ESPN's Myron Medcalf opens quite forcefully" "
Falling back into his seat at the postgame dais at the Frank Erwin Center after his team's loss to Texas on Saturday, Roy Williams opened the Q&A with one word and a sigh that summarized the mood of a North Carolina basketball team that's fighting, and failing, to preserve its former legacy.
"OK ... "
You can imagine the solemn tone.
The tone a teenager uses before he tells his parents why he really missed curfew. The tone your mechanic adopts before he hands you the bill and reveals that your car needs a new everything. The tone a prominent college basketball coach employs when he's blessed with elite talent but is still underachieving and losing his grip on one of the richest legacies in the game -- one that heeds to a lofty standard that's not met by a loss to a Texas squad that Texas A&M, Michigan and Washington all defeated."
A hard to swallow pill: "North Carolina's former success centered on three ideas: The Tar Heels were perennial national title and ACC contenders, they attracted America's top prep players and they developed NBA talent. That's not the norm today."
If you have followed my comments on basketball over the past 5 years or so, you will know that I see the problem as being, or at last being birthed inevitably from, Roy having slowly become a hidebound ideologue. He has a simple idea that once was bold and original, and he is a true believer, and, like Ahab chasing that whale, he will take the ship down with his idea, his ideology.
UNC no longer develops players, for great success in college or to last in the NBA, because Roy recruits and then trains to feed his system: run up and down the court the fastest to get off the most shots. To recruit for that, you cannot focus on perimeter D or half court D or fundamentally sound rebounding or outside shooting by Bigs or even 3 point shooting by Gs and WFs. Your starting point and your main focus is on players getting up and down court as fast as possible.
If you do not have a good, flexible, efficient half court offense, your ability to get off the most shots will cripple the team. If you cannot play good perimeter D, your team filled with 1st rate run-jump athletes is going to get exposed time and again.
At this point, I do not see Roy changing. He is a true believer in his system, He knows that if only he can land another Big like Hansbrough and another PG as fast as Lawson who in year 3 will finally be a 1st rate outside shooter and a WD who can nail 3s like Ellington, and have another 7 or top athletes to play with them then he can win another National Title.
And Beamer kept dreaming about another Michael Vick has his teams underachieved several years in succession.
ESPN's Myron Medcalf opens quite forcefully" "
Falling back into his seat at the postgame dais at the Frank Erwin Center after his team's loss to Texas on Saturday, Roy Williams opened the Q&A with one word and a sigh that summarized the mood of a North Carolina basketball team that's fighting, and failing, to preserve its former legacy.
"OK ... "
You can imagine the solemn tone.
The tone a teenager uses before he tells his parents why he really missed curfew. The tone your mechanic adopts before he hands you the bill and reveals that your car needs a new everything. The tone a prominent college basketball coach employs when he's blessed with elite talent but is still underachieving and losing his grip on one of the richest legacies in the game -- one that heeds to a lofty standard that's not met by a loss to a Texas squad that Texas A&M, Michigan and Washington all defeated."
A hard to swallow pill: "North Carolina's former success centered on three ideas: The Tar Heels were perennial national title and ACC contenders, they attracted America's top prep players and they developed NBA talent. That's not the norm today."
If you have followed my comments on basketball over the past 5 years or so, you will know that I see the problem as being, or at last being birthed inevitably from, Roy having slowly become a hidebound ideologue. He has a simple idea that once was bold and original, and he is a true believer, and, like Ahab chasing that whale, he will take the ship down with his idea, his ideology.
UNC no longer develops players, for great success in college or to last in the NBA, because Roy recruits and then trains to feed his system: run up and down the court the fastest to get off the most shots. To recruit for that, you cannot focus on perimeter D or half court D or fundamentally sound rebounding or outside shooting by Bigs or even 3 point shooting by Gs and WFs. Your starting point and your main focus is on players getting up and down court as fast as possible.
If you do not have a good, flexible, efficient half court offense, your ability to get off the most shots will cripple the team. If you cannot play good perimeter D, your team filled with 1st rate run-jump athletes is going to get exposed time and again.
At this point, I do not see Roy changing. He is a true believer in his system, He knows that if only he can land another Big like Hansbrough and another PG as fast as Lawson who in year 3 will finally be a 1st rate outside shooter and a WD who can nail 3s like Ellington, and have another 7 or top athletes to play with them then he can win another National Title.
And Beamer kept dreaming about another Michael Vick has his teams underachieved several years in succession.
